Nobel Peace Laureate Mairead Corrigan Maguire recently embarked on a four-day visit to Gaza with the Free Gaza Movement. The group arrived on a ship with medicine, eager to restore hope to the Gazans and inspire response from the international community to their plight.
The Nobel Women’s Initiative is calling—with renewed urgency—for the end to the harassment and arrest of women human rights defenders in Iran. In recent weeks, authorities in Iran have stepped-up their targeting of members of the One Million Signatures Campaign - including Nobel Peace Laureate Dr. Shirin Ebadi.
Authorities arrested campaign member Esha Momeni on October 15, and she is still being held in detention.Momeni is a dual American-Iranian citizen who traveled to Iran to visit family and complete her Master’s research on the Iranian women’s movement.Also last month, Iranian officials prevented campaign member Sussan Tahmasebi from traveling and confiscated campaign materials from the home of Parastoo Alahyaari.
The US magazine, Glamour, this week named the Nobel Women’s Initiative one of ten winners of their annual Women of the Year award. The magazine noted that since 2006 the Nobel Peace Prize Laureates Shirin Ebadi, Mairead Corrigan Maguire, Wangari Maathai, Rigoberta Menchú Tum, Betty Williams and Jody Williams have used their “clout with world leaders to get them to take a stand against violence and work for peace and human rights”.
Glamour Magazine Announces 2008 Women of the Year on NBC's Today Show
The Iranian regime has stepped up its campaign against Shirin Ebadi – read more here.
Recently they have pressured Malaysia to silence the Nobel Peace Laureate.
The Nobel Women’s Initiative joins the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran together with the Asian NGOs Network on National Human Rights Institutions (ANNI) to call on the governments of Iran and Malaysia to support free speech—and for Malaysia not bow to pressure from Iran to silence Dr Shirin Ebadi.
In September, the Malaysian Ministry of Foreign Affairs asked organizers of an event scheduled to take place in Malaysia next month to withdraw its invitation to Dr. Shirin Ebadi. Dr. Ebadi was to speak about her human rights work in Iran to an audience of Asian human rights defenders. The foreign affairs ministry told organizers that such a speaking engagement would “cause a disruption of good relations” between the governments of Malaysia and Iran.
Women's Peace Delegation to the UN: Act Now on Darfur, Burma
Nobel Laureates Wangari Maathai and Jody Williams—along with actress-activist Mia Farrow—were at the United Nations on September 29 to call for immediate action to end the crises in Darfur and Burma. They also launched a report, detailing recommendations developed by the Nobel Women’s Initiative during its 3-week delegation this past summer to the Thai-Burma border, Ethiopia, Sudan and Eastern Chad. The women called on world leaders and the Security Council not to bow to pressure and delay justice to the people of Darfur. They also called for the international community—especially China—to stop supporting the campaign of violence against Burma’s ethnic nationalities, including the use of rape as a weapon of war.
As women Nobel Peace Laureates we look with great hope to the Americas Social Forum in Guatemala, October 7th-12th, as an opportunity for thousands of concerned citizens and social movements across the continents to affirm their commitment to women’s rights and gender equality. We are optimistic that a powerful message will be communicated to governments about the urgency of protecting and respecting women’s rights and the feminist leaders who safeguard and promote them.
With great concern, we witness the deterioration of women’s lives and the unraveling of the social fabric, particularly in Mexico and Central America. Millions of Mesoamerican women live in extreme poverty making them vulnerable to labor exploitation and forcing them, increasingly, to migrate northward to find a better life and leave behind their young children and families. Furthermore, with the privatization and rising costs of healthcare across the region, women’s health and maternal mortality have worsened dramatically while one government after another proceeds to restrict and reverse reproductive rights. Violence has become a daily reality for the majority of Mesoamerican women. Femicide has grown at an alarming rate, as has the impunity with which the majority of cases are treated.
We, six women Nobel Peace Laureates—Shirin Ebadi, Jody Williams, Wangari Maathai, Rigoberta Menchu, Betty Williams and Mairead Maguire—are honoured to once again support the Reach All Women In War (RAW) Anna Politkovskaya Award. This award is presented each year to a woman human rights defender from an area of war and conflict, and keeps alive the spirit of Anna Politkovskaya: a woman activist and journalist from Russia whose courageous reports of atrocities against civilians in Chechyna led ultimately to her untimely death exactly two years ago.
Thankfully there are courageous women around the world who, like Anna Politkovskaya, are willing to speak truth to power. Malalai Joya—the recipient of this year’s award—is one such woman. The youngest-ever elected member of Afghanistan’s national parliament, Joya has bravely stood up for Afghanistan's citizens. Like Politkovskaya, her outspokenness has come with a high price. She lives under a cloud of death threats, and on several occasions her opponents have even physically assaulted her. In spring of 2007, Joya was indefinitely suspended from Parliament for defending the rights of the Afghan people—this, despite the fact that women from across the country have rallied to her support. Joya continues to speak out for Afghan women, and against the NATO-led mission in Afghanistan.
Nobel Laureates Jody Williams and Wangari Maathai—along with actress-activist Mia Farrow—are in New York at the United Nations, pressing for more concerted international action to end the bloodshed and violence in Sudan, Darfur and Burma.
They released a report that details findings from their recent visit to both regions. The report includes strong recommendations aimed at the international community on creating sustainable peace in both regions.
To learn more, check out the media release or download the report below.
News
The Nobel Women’s Initiative is calling—with renewed urgency—for the end to the harassment and arrest of women human rights defenders in 
Women's Peace Delegation to the UN: Act Now on Darfur, Burma
As women Nobel Peace Laureates we look with great hope to the 
Thankfully there are courageous women around the world who, like Anna Politkovskaya, are willing to speak truth to power. 
Nobel Laureates